Coping
by PokeyDotes
Summary: House thought Chase was coping with the aftermath of Dibala, but after the lockdown, he's not so certain. Please RR


Disclaimer: I do not own House, M.D., or any of the characters in it.

He was getting better.

Yes, House could tell that he hadn't been sleeping, and overheard whispers from Thirteen and Taub had confirmed his suspicions about the drinking, and Chase still seemed leery about being near the ICU for too long a time.

He required a lot more coffee to get through the day than the rest of the team, and he seemed to have a constant expression of pain masked behind his bright eyes, but he was definitely starting to cope.

House knew that his colleague was annoyed with the plethora of questions, which only worked to put strain on a broken heart still in repair.

However, House also knew that Chase was afraid of were the line of questioning would lead; why did Cameron leave? What answer could the young doctor give that wouldn't cause more pain?

In this situation, the truth is actually worse than any idle gossip the clinic nurses could create. Murder versus infidelity. Any inquiries into the reason the seemingly happy marriage suddenly ended could not end well.

Thanks to a busted nose and one black eye, the Aussie appeared to have relaxed with the relief of not having anyone questioning him about how he was coping.

But then again, House never really took notice of what made the others happy. Or at least not in a way that wouldn't benefit him. But things had been getting better, at least before she showed up.

Two days after the lockdown, Chase managed to sneak off immediately after the patient was given the correct diagnoses. House wouldn't have been too worried, except the troubled doctor turned towards the direction of the stairs.

"I thought you had outgrown this perverse game of hide and seek?"

House could barely detect a slight flinch in Chase's shoulders as they rested over the edge of the building's guardrail when House had finally made his presence known.

"I'm not hiding, I'm thinking."

Troubled eyes, with a mixture of pleading, and pain fighting with guilt.

Seeing those eyes, House made a forced effort to withhold any quick response. He could see that he was struggling to keep his emotions in check.

House wasn't sure if the sudden set back in Chase's coping was brought about by the fact that his marriage was over or by the fact that her visit had forced the Dibala incident to resurface.

This man in front of him was not a murderer. Yes, he had murdered a man, but he didn't possess the state of mind to cope with his actions.

"When she left, she had said it was because I was toxic, unfixable…what I did…" the accent growing thick with exhaustion and emotion.

"Chase, I'm not saying it's something you should be proud of, but…it's not something you should regret."

As soon as the words were spoken, two tormented eyes looked House dead in the eyes for the first time since either man had entered the roof.

"Thank you"

"For what?"  
>"Saying that. Even if you don't mean it."<p>

"Chase, if I didn't mean it… if I thought you screwed up, I wouldn't be here right now."

Chase simply stared at him, his eyes calculating with suspicion. "Why are you being nice? Your sarcasm and usually snarky attitude aren't something that can be destroyed by sobriety."

At least thirty seconds passed before House conceded to just admit the truth.

"I actually thought you might jump."

"I appear that depressed?"

"Hey, a couple of months ago, I watched the world's happiest man try to fly off a parking garage. Don't blame me for thinking that a brokenhearted, homicidal, lovesick Brit with identity issues who has spent the last few months theoretically testing the moral laws set by God wouldn't want to practically test the laws set by Physics and see if gravity still works by taking a nosedive off our roof."

"That's more like you."

Several moments passed while Chase kept his head down, watching the people walking in and out of the hospital while House bounced his cane off of a loose brick before Chase broke the silence.

"How is it you can forgive me, but she couldn't?"

"I haven't forgiven you because either I don't blame you or I don't care enough, and she's an overly emotional hypocrite."

"I asked her if she ever really loved me."  
>"She say something mushy and girly, and complicated?"<p>

"She said 'I don't know'."

"oh."

"Which is more or less an attempt at saying 'no' in a nice way."

"oh."

"_Then_ she got all mushy and girly, and complicated. Then she started crying and actually gave a convincing 'it's not you, it's me' speech."

"That _does_ sound complicated"

"Then we had sex."

"Way to redefine the meaning of complicated."

The smirk on Chase's face slowly changed to a look of concentration.

"You don't blame me."

"For having sex? Hell no, I'd blame you if you didn't, Hell I'd fire you for being that stupid."

"No, I mean you haven't forgiven me because you don't blame me, not because you don't care. If you didn't care, you wouldn't be here."

"Don't go getting all mushy and girly on me. And definitely don't go trying to make things complicated because I am not having sex with you. Oh, who am I kidding? With those big eyes and wavy hair…" House gave his best imitation of an overly promiscuous schoolgirl.

"You wish." Chase replied, smile feeling more comfortable on his lips than before.

"Not as much as you do."

"I'm way out of your league."

"Yeah, you are _really_ pretty" House chided with false sad eyes as he watched Chase grab his bag and head for the door.

"Good night House."

Okay, so she didn't screw everything up. Things were still getting better, he was still coping. But House wasn't about to just pretend to let him handle it on his own. He would simply pretend to pretend to let Chase handle it on his own.

When House made it to the lobby, he saw Chase just crossing around the nurses' station just as Cuddy was about to walk into her office. Trying to hide his smile in order to provide a convincing act to embarrass both his colleague and boss at the same time, House cleared his throat and yelled across the lobby "Hey Dr. Chase, I forgot did you want me to bring the hookers and you the booze, or was it the other way around?"

"I'll get the booze, you seem to have more experience with the hookers, just this time, try and make sure they're ALL women. I don't need any more surprises like last time."

_Kid didn't even miss a beat._ House just smiled. Well he didn't embarrass Chase, but the looks on the faces of the nurses were only half as great as the look on Cuddy's. Totally worth it. Plus, the kid was coping and she hadn't screwed everything up.


End file.
